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IT Boot Camps Offer Training, From ERP to Linux and More

When IT employees need to increase their skills quickly, IT boot camps in a variety of subjects can offer educational resources for gaining new knowledge.

For years, Eric Kimberling, the managing partner and founder of ERP consultancy Panorama Consulting Solutions, had been hearing from clients that the business-critical Enterprise Resource Management systems they were trying to deploy and manage were making them crazy.

The ERP systems were incredibly complex to operate and required specialized knowledge when it came time to upgrade existing platforms or choose new systems. There had to be a better way for his customers to improve their understanding of their ERP systems, he thought.

"We saw a need because these systems were so complicated," he told eWEEK. "There was just not much out there."

That's when Kimberling's company began organizing and holding specialized ERP boot camps for clients, featuring three days of deep-level learning about what ERP is, lessons about selecting the right applications from the right vendors to fit a company's needs and more. The courses are aimed at helping IT managers decipher ERP for their businesses, rather than offering hands-on lessons for actually running and managing the systems.

Further reading

"We give instruction on what to ask prospective vendors, and about topics such as how you manage the implementation using project management procedures," Kimberling said. "We talk about all of the things that are going to make or break your projects."

The classes, which run about $3,000 per student, plus travel and lodging, are held in different parts of the United States each year and have so far trained several hundred people, he said. Classes include a maximum of 25 students each.

Panorama's next ERP boot camps are scheduled for Sept. 23 to 26 in Vail, Colo., and Jan. 27 to 30 in Los Angeles. This year's boot camps also include a new feature—a series of hands-on vendor demonstrations of various ERP products from major vendors such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft—so attendees can see what is out in the market, said Kimberling.

What also makes the boot camps so valuable for attendees, he said, is that the students can all talk with each other and share their experiences as they make their way through the maze that is ERP.

"They're all in the same boat," he said. "They certainly learn from us, but I think there's something to be said about learning from each other as well."

Several IT analysts told eWEEK that boot camps can be a boon for companies and their technology workers. The key, they say, is to be sure that the courses are true boot camps that dive into the subject matter rather than marketing sessions that masquerade as education.

"I think IT boot camps can be useful, as long as they focus on helping IT employees either get a start or a ramp-up to a practical skill they'll use on the job," said Dan Maycock, an analyst with OneAccord Digital. "Too many sales seminars and vendor trainings are disguised as IT boot camps, and only offer skills related to a particular product or certification that may have limited usefulness over the course of that IT employee's career."